Hello! I'm Cryniu and welcome to my first English guide about Zilean!

First of all I want to say English is not my native languaje I speak mostly Spanish but I'll try my best writing this guide for you :D

Zilean is one of my favorite champions in League of legends and one of my mains even in Diamond-Master (Max league Master 200LP)

I love playing Zilean in Mid and occasionaly as a support and I think is a champ with a great potential when you master him so... I want to invite you to discover the Clock World.

I hope you enjoy it!

Zilean

The Chronokeeper

Zilean is a very particular mage whose main role is Support (Role, not lane) and mage as secondary role. This means Zilean is more appreciated because of his utility than his damage or harmful abilities and you can note this when I say that Zilean has only one damage ability xD

Zilean was designed as Support/Mage champion with mainly Magic damage with his Time Bomb and a very special ultimate Chronoshift which can revive an ally.

Although Zilean is a champion with a veeeeeeryyyyyy old play style and people don't like him that much I think is a great champion with a lot of potential.




As you can see in this image (which you can found in lol client) Zilean stands out because of his utility.

Utility: High

Damage: Medium

Movility: Medium

Crowd Control: Medium

Toughness: Low

Strenghts ✔️ One of the best revive abilities in lol ✔️ Powerful crowd control with stun and slow ✔️ One of the best slow abilities in lol Time Warp, 99% at the max level! ✔️ You also can speed up your allies with this ability! ✔️ One of the few champions that can level up allies with his passive Time in a Bottle ✔️ Very decent waveclear with his bombs ✔️ Exotic pick (people don't play him so much) ✔️ In general he is a very useful champion to have in your team

Weaknesses X Zilean has only one damage ability, if you are looking for a champion with great damage, choose another champion. X Although you can use your ultimate to revive yourself, Zilean is very squishy X You can't use your ultimate when you are stunned, remember that! X Zilean is very team dependent to take kills, turrets, drakes etc... X Zilean's basic attacks are very slow X In my opinion he is a hard champion to learn and master

You will see all abilities of Zilean in this section and I'm going to give you tips about them!

Time in a Bottle (Passive)

Zilean stores time as Experience and can grant it to his allies. When he has enough Experience to finish an ally's level up, he can right-click them to impart it. Zilean receives as much Experience as he gives.

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Tips!

1. This ability is very useful to power up your allies and help them to get strong power spikes. Try to level up them when you know that they will be very strong because of them max leves. Example: Kayle lvl 16 Kassadin lvl 16 Ornn because his masterwork items and lvl 13

2. Try to level up your allies when it's worth it. Example it's not worth when your ally is about to level up with 1 or 2 minions left. Remember that you can see a white circle around your allies that means experience amount they have and this circle will be yellow when you can level up them.

3. Level up your allies is very useful in key moments like 5 to 6 because your ally get his ultimate or 10 to 11 because his ultimate gains level 2

4. Remember that this ability levels up both allies and yourself.

5. It's a little annoying missclicking while your passive is available and your allies are fighting. This ability will stop you meanwhile you are leveling your ally, try to level up them out of fight.

Time Bomb (Q)

Tosses a bomb to target area that sticks to units that come near it (prioritizes Champions). It detonates after 3 seconds, dealing area of effect damage. If a Time Bomb is detonated early by another Time Bomb, it also stuns enemies.

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Tips!

1. This will be your only damage ability. Use it wisely to poke your enemies or clear the wave.

2. It's my first maxed level ability because you can poke your enemies a lot during laning phase.

3. Remember that detonate first bomb with another bomb will stun enemies in the damage area. One of the basic Zilean's combos (Q+W+Q) uses this ability two times to stun.

4. It's a difficult ability to target in my opinion. This is because Zilean does a little animation before throw the bomb and this warns your enemies to dodge it. Try to practice and predict where your enemies will be.

5. You can detonate two bombs at the same time for double instant damage! (it will be explained in combos section)

6. You also can put it on an ally or yourself!. Example you can put a bomb on a minion to damage your enemy if he kills that minion.

7. Be careful when you are against enemies that can put shields on themselves. If you put a bomb on someone with shield, they will negate the damage and you will waste mana.

Rewind (W)

Zilean can prepare himself for future confrontations, reducing the cooldowns of his other basic abilities. Zilean reduces the current cooldowns of Time Bomb and Time Warp by 10 seconds.

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Tips!

1. Essential ability for Zilean combos like Q+W+Q or E+W+E

2. This ability only reduces Q and E cooldown, remember that it doesn't affect your ultimate.

3. You only can use it when your Q or E are in cooldown. Remember that because you can make a mistake using W when your Q or E only have 1 or 2 seconds left and it's not worth it.

4. I prefer level up E before W because the powerful slow of 99% but level up W is a great option too.

Time Warp (E)

Zilean bends time around any unit, decreasing an enemy's Move Speed or increasing an ally's Move Speed for a short time.

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Tips!

1. One of the most powerful slow/speed up abilities with an amount of 99% (almost a root)

2. You don't have to target it and this ability doesn't have cast animation so... miss it is impossible.

3. Remember that you can use it on enemies to slow them or allies to speed up them and you can use it on yourself too!

4. If you want to use it on yourself I suggest you to use ALT + E quickly.

5. Use it when you are leaving your base to reach the lane faster.

6. Great synergy with Celerity because lots of movement speed!

7. Great synergy with champions with speed boost like Hecarim or Master Yi

8. Great synergy with other cc tools like Everfrost or Exhaust

Chronoshift (R)

Zilean marks himself or an allied champion with a protective time rune for 5 seconds. If the target would take lethal damage, they are instead transported back in time, regaining Health.

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Tips!

1. Mainly try to pay attention at the moment to put it. The key to make this ability work is use it when you know that your ally will be in extreme danger or dead.

2. You can use it on your allies or yourself, remember use ALT + R (default) to use it on yourself quickly.

3. This ability recovers health based on your ability power, so items with a lot of ability power like Rabadon's Deathcap or Archangel's Staff are very strong.

4. Great synergy with immortality or protection items like Zhonya's Hourglass or Crown of the Shattered Queen

5. Great synergy with champions with: immortality, revive, protection. Example Tryndamere Ekko Zac Lulu Taric

6. Great synergy with Ultimate Hunter to revive a lot of times!

This section will contain my favorite runes and explanations about them. Remember that this guide is about Zilean in mid so I'm not going to recommend Guardian or Summon Aery because I think these are better runes as support.


My favorite runes in this patch (13.6)



In this page you will find:

Poke
Mana
Movement speed
Ap
Tenacity

Everything that Zilean needs to damage, run and revive allies.



Sorcery Tree

I choose Arcane Comet because you can do a very strong burst damage with this combo: Q+W+Q + Luden's Tempest and your enemy will be stunned so fail Arcane Comet will impossible. Summon Aery is good but I prefer strong damage and Phase Rush is useful to play a safe lane.

There is no secret, we will need lots of mana. Besides you activate it with your bomb in laning phase.

Celerity offers us a great synergy with Time Warp. You will be able to move very fast around the map (remember that you are mid). Transcendence is a great option but you will have enough haste with Luden's Tempest and Zhonya's Hourglass in my opinion and Absolute Focus is viable if you want to poke.

This rune gives us a lot of AP in the mid-late game. I choose it because when you use Scorch the enemy tends to play safe and you decline in mid-late, this doesn't happen when you have better AP with this rune. Waterwalking could be cool to move other lanes but my favorite is Gathering Storm

Precision Tree

Zilean needs a lot of mana and this rune is a great combo with Manaflow Band because both recover mana when you poke the enemies.

Very important most of games because your enemies will try to stun you so you will can't use your ultimate. Tenacity is extremely important to move and use your ultimate freely.

Other viable options!

Unsealed Spellbook is a cool rune to be very useful but is pretty complicated dominating it and Glacial Augment is great to create a powerful cc chain with bombs, your E or Everfrost. What ever I only recommend these two runes if you are playing as support.

Ultimate Hunter is an excellent option if you want to revive more allies. I suggest you take it only if you will build Crown of the Shattered Queen because both have synergy of mutual protection. If you will take Ultimate Hunter my prefer rune is Taste of Blood for laning phase sustain but Cheap Shot and Eyeball Collection are great options.

Shards!

Attack speed to kill more minions with your basic attacks. Ability power to more damage Take armor against AD champions like Zed or Talon Take magic resist agains AP agressive champions like Ahri or Xerath Take HP per level against passive champions so you will scale a little better.

Flash Flash is the primary option to escape and doing fast movements. There is no other spell like this so take it always.

Teleport My preferred option as secondary spell is Teleport. Taking Teleport in mid lane is a great option as safe/control spell because you can comeback to your turret or other turrets. I love to use teleport with Zilean because you also can go to other lanes and support your allies. Naturally that includes you can use teleport and revive your allies in dangerous moments.

Exhaust Exhaust is a great option too, especially if you are against assasins like Zed Fizz Qiyana. This spell counters hard to assasins and you will help your allies to live more.

Ghost Ghost is very viable if you like to run a lot. Remember that we can use E Time Warp and Celerity to run faster!

I don't recommend any other spell

This section is about my recommendations about items with Zilean. I'm going to include my favorite mythics with legendaries and smaller items like starters and boots



Mythics

Luden's TempestLuden is my favorite Mythic playing as Zilean mid. It offers us burst damage, movement speed, waveclear, magic pen, mana, ap etc... I prefer this item because when you have Luden and Sorcerer's Shoes (+24 magic pen with both) you can do a very strong burst damage with Q+W+Q combo.

Crown of the Shattered Queen The Crown is my second favorite choice, especially when I want to use Ultimate Hunter and play most like a secondary support. The Crown offers us an anti-burst shield in the first 1.5 seconds, that means we will be confortable to use our ultimate before the enemy kill us. I see to Crown of the Shattered Queen like a defensive alternative and it's great in combo with Ultimate Hunter and Zhonya's Hourglass to revive a lot!

Everfrost Everfrost is cool to create CC chains with your bombs, your E and Glacial Augment. I prefer burst damage of Luden but is a viable option if you want to cc.

Liandry's Anguish Liandry is viable against bruisers and tanks with lots of HP. I prefer burst damage and let my allies doing DPS but burning with your bombs could be cool, buy it only if you need to do more DPS.

Rod of Ages ROA is cool to play a solid laning phase with sustain and a free level. Remember that this item doesn't offer haste like the rest of ap mythics.

Legendaries

Zhonya's Hourglass Zhonya is my favorite legendary item because offers us a great synergy with our ultimate. Remember that if we use our ultimate on an ally, we will be exposed so this item is great to survive with the active of invulnerability. You also can gain a lot of time using Zhonya + Ult because the enemies will have to wait to kill you.

Banshee's Veil Banshee is great against magic comps and avoiding a spell is great to survive more and use your ultimate freely. Buy it when you are against champions with powerful CC and damage spells like Malphite Fiddlesticks Amumu

Rabadon's Deathcap There is no secret, Rabadon offers us a lot of AP and our abilities scale with strong AP, especially our ultimate which heals more with more AP.

Force of nature I love this item because when I buy Luden+Zhonya I want to buy magic resist and HP and this item offers both. Its excellent against powerful mages (most of our enemies in mid). I like to buy one or two defensive items and Force of nature is very strong to survive against mages and use more your ultimate!

Randuin's Omen Buying Randuin is the same concept of buying Force of Nature except that this is against AD and critical strikes champions. Buy it in mid-late game and only if you are against at least two critical strikes champions. Examples: Yasuo mid and Vayne adc or Kindred jg and Yone top.

Gargoyle Stoneplate Gargoyle is great as fourth or fifth item, you know, when the entire team is trying to kill you to anulate your ultimate. It offers us a lot of armor and magic resistance when we are surrounded of enemies and we can active it to shield us.

Archangel's Staff Arcangel is a great scale item which offers a lot of mana and a shield. Buy it if you want to play more like a spammer mage and overscale more to your enemies. Its excellent with Liandry's Torment to burn a lot and Crown of the Shattered Queen to have a protection combo.

Shadowflame Shadowflame is an alternative poke option, especially against enemies with shields. Remember that Shadowflame offers a lot of magic penetration when the enemy has a shield. I don't use Shadowflame but is a very viable option to poke more with your bombs.

Morellonomicon Morellonomicon it's not one of my favorites but grievous wounds are useful against heal comps. Buy it only if your team are not buying grievous wounds and start with Oblivion Orb so you can update to morello later.

Cosmic drive Cosmic drive is a very special item because offers us 30 ability haste! and its passive and stats turn us into a more slippery Zilean. Buy it as fourth or fifth item if you want to use more spells.

Demonic embrace Don't take it, I think Liandry is better option. This item works better being an AP bruiser like Mordekaiser or Swain

Horizon Focus Horizon focus is viable if you want to do more damage but I think you have enough with Luden and boots. I prefer defensive options in the mid-late game.

Void staff Buy Void staff only if the enemy has a lot of Magic Resistance and you want to do more damage. I don't like it so much because Zilean is not good doing DPS in late game but Void Staff + Liandry's Torment is a decent combo against bruisers and tanks.

Boots

Sorcerer's shoes These boots are my main recomendation because I love the burst damage with their magic penetration. Think about it, +18 magic penetration of boots, +6 of Luden, +5 of your second item, you will have +29 magic penetration with 2 items.

Mercury's Treads Second but very important option, remember that Tenacity is very important because enemies will try to stun you so you can't use your ultimate. Buy these when you are against a lot of CC and magical damage. Examples: Ahri + Sejuani or Vex + Evelynn

Ionian Boots of Lucidity Ionian boots are great and really strong but I prefer the magic penetration to do strong burst damage. Whatever, Ionian boots could be a great option if you will use their haste. A very good option is use them in combo with Rod of Ages which doesn't give us haste.

Boots of Swiftness These boots are great against slow spells and you will be faster. Zilean runs a lot with Time Warp so these boots are okay.

Starter items

Doran's ring Doran's ring is my main option because Zilean suffers in the early game to survive and poke. It will help you to face the first minutes with HP and mana.

Tear of the Goddess The tear is great to have stable mana but I don't recommend it as first item because you would be very fragile without the HP of Doran's ring. If you want more mana I suggest you buy it as second item in your first back.

Corrupting Potion I'd use this item ocassionaly, it's cool against mele champs or when you need to poke your enemy earlier. I suggest you try it vs Kassadin Sylas Yasuo because you can poke them using its burning with your basic attacks.

Dark Seal Dark Seal is cool but I don't recommend it because it doesn't give us mana.

This section will be dedicated to how to build you in the different stages of the game and why.



Early Game


As I said buy Doran's ring and potions to survive the first minutes.

If you want more mana you can buy the tear in your first back but this will delay your mythic.

These are your first items to go. Lost chapter will give you enough mana and the boots will help you to dodge and roam. If you can't buy Lost chapter you can buy Sapphire Crystal and Amplifying Tome meanwhile.

If you are playing with this combo, when you have these two items you will be very strong because their magic penetration and wave clear. Building Sorcerer's Shoes is not only damage is a great option to roam and dodge too. I suggest you to build them when you need mobility like against Yasuo or Vel'Koz

Buy these boots when you are facing a lot of CC in the lane and the enemy jungle has CC too. The best example is against laner and jungler with magical damage and CC.

If you are suffering in laning phase, Stopwatch will help you to survive one time and build Zhonya faster.

Build this item when you are sufferin against strong AD burst damage. Example Akshan Talon Qiyana

If you are in trouble against assasins like Zed or Fizz, building Zhonya as first item is a great option. Remember the great synergy that your ultimate has with Zhonya's active to have a lot of survivability. You can go for Lost Chapter and keep it there until you finish Zhonya so you are using the passive of Lost chapter to generate lots of mana.




Mid Game



This is my main target with items in mid game. Luden and boost give us lots of damage, wave clear and movement to roam. Zhonya gives us the main synergy to survive, remember that to use your ultimate freely you will need protect yourself with other tools like Zhonya's active.

If you are playing my defensive build this is the key moment where we will have lots of protection. Anti-burst, Anti-death and Anti-CC. Remember use Ultimate Hunter to revive more allies.

Remember use this when your team is refusing to buy grievous wounds. Try to build other items but if you need it just buy.

This is my favorite moment to build this item because we don't have HP or Magic resistance. Force of nature is great to survive and face constant magical damage. Remember that mages usually build Liandry's Torment or they have strong AP spells like Arcane Storm of Viktor

If you are not comfortable building Force of Nature, Banshee is a great option. My main point with this is equilibrate your resistances, think about you have lots of armor with Zhonya but you don't have Magic resist so this is the moment to build one Magic resist item. Besides, remember the anti-spell shield is great to survive and use your ultimate freely.

Build Randiun instead of Force of Nature if you are facing full ad comps or champion combinations like Yasuo + Kindred which hits lots of critical strikes.




Late Game


Rabadon is one of the last items to have because you will have lots of AP with its passive of +35% AP and this helps your ultimate to heal more.

One of my favorite last items because the enemies will try to kill you before you can use your ultimate. This item will turn you into a semi-tank when you are surrounded and you can use its active to survive more.

If you didn't build this before, consider to buy it in the last game phase.

It's great as fourth or fifth item to use more spells. Remember this item gives 30 ability haste!

If your enemies are building lots of magic resistance these two items are great. Although I don't recommend to do lots of damage with Zilean in late game, these items are great if that's your wish.




Final Build Examples

Example of final equilibrated build. Remember build Oblivion Orb and Morellonomicon when you need it and obviously Elixir of Sorcery because we are playing an AP build.

Example of final defensive build. This build ends with both special defense items Force of Nature vs APS and Randuin's Omen vs AD and critic and Gargoyle Stoneplate will help you in the last battles. You can change any item of these if you are not comfortable and if you want more defense in late game you can buy Elixir of Iron.

My favorite final build if you are playing with Ultimate Hunter. This build includes lots of anti-cc, anti-burst and anti-death. The effect of Crown + Banshee is beautiful because you have two shields to prevent damage and CC. Cosmic Drive and Rabadon's Deathcap will boost your spells and ultimate to be more useful in late game. Although this build is equilibrated in resistances you can build more defenses with the last 2 items.

Let's talk about combos and mechanics of Zilean!

Combos are one of the most important things of Zilean playstyle, there are a lot of ways to use your spells and I will try to put them here.




Double Bomb

+ +

Q+W+Q

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The first basic combo that you will find and the key is do it as fast as you can. This combo basically is to stun your enemies because you are detonating the first bomb with the second one.

Remember that is extremely important to use this combo quickly because the enemy usually will try to dodge it so... practice your Q W Q !


Although is a basic combo of Zilean, you can do fantastic plays that can change team fights like this:

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Instant Double Bomb

You can do a very surprising burst damage like this:

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The secret is to kill the minion or enemy with the first bomb so the second one will detonate immediately. You can do this using Double Bomb combo on a low-hp minion (usually casters) or using basic attacks to kill the minion with the bomb.


Try to use an important target as epicenter to clear the wave efficiently, like a cannon minion:

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If you don't have a cannon or viable epicenter, you can use yourself as epicenter!

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CC Combos


Zilean has a lot of combos with CC because his E and W, let's talk about them!



Guaranteed Bomb

+

E on your enemy + Q

You can slow your enemy with your E before use your Q to guarantee hit your bomb like this:

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Remember that your enemies will try to dodge your bomb because it's slow cast and your E doesn't have cast animation so poke your enemy will be easier.


Obviously you can use this to hit Double Bomb easier:

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Full CC Combo

+ + + +

E + Q + W + Q + E

This powerful combo is an extension of the previous combo. You can extend Guaranteed Bomb to a Full CC Combo doing a double slow and this will give your team a great chance to kill the enemy. Example:

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It's very important to use your second E before your enemy try to escape or kill you, pay attention when your stun ends.



Super Speed, Super Slow and Break Combo

+ +

E + W + E

There are three ways to do this combo according to the situation.


Super Speed

Use both E on yourself or an ally, remember that it's very important use the second E when the first one ends. This combo is great to boost the speed of an ally that depends of his mobility, example Master Yi or Hecarim.

You also can use it on yourself to roam or reach the lane faster like this:

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Super Slow

Just use both E on your enemy, it'll be slow during 5 seconds!

This combo is especially efficient against champions who depends of their speed like Hecarim or Rammus and it's excellent to hunt enemies.

Example:

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Break Combo

Use the first E on your enemy and the second one on yourself or an ally. This combo will break the fight because you deny the engage and speed up yourself or an ally to escape.

Example:

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Let's talk about how to play in the different phases of the game!




Early Game

This is the worst time for Zilean because you will need lots of mana to poke, you will be very fragile without your ultimate and you will have to farm with basic attacks.

I suggest you to practice your last hit in the practice tool of lol to have better farm.

Focus on poke your enemy as much as you can and keep your distance because remember you don't have your ultimate until lvl 6.

If your enemy is melee you can poke it more with your basic attacks and put it your bombs will be easier.

Remember my recommendations about items! Usually Mercury's Treads are good if you are suffering againts CC champions or Zhonya's Hourglass if you are againts ***ains. Focus on buying your first items to damage or survive.

Max your Time Bomb to poke and use some point in your Time Warp to roam more. Remember use your E Time Warp to move to help your team or to slow the enemy so your jungler will gank easier.



Mid game

This is my favorite moment with Zilean, you have your ultimate and your first items to do a very strong burst damage. Besides, you will have your Q maxed and your E almost maxed so you will can burst and slow your enemies a lot.

You will have your first items such as Luden's Tempest and Sorcerer's Shoes to poke or Mercury's Treads and Zhonya's Hourglass to survive. Every item has a purpose so taked advantage of them.

You will be very useful in this game phase because you will have a lot of utility tools unlocked such as Unleashed Teleport, Zhonya's Hourglass, your E Time Warp in good level and of course, your ultimate Chronoshift to revive allies.

Remember use your E Time Warp, this is the moment to roam and help your allies to take objectives.

Try to clear the wave efficiently using your bombs on the cannon, the warriors to stop the lane or the casters to kill them.

Remember that this is your best moment to burst your enemies because you will have Magic penetration, so take advantage of your Bombs and Double Bombs.

Try to split push when you have Teleport available. Luden's Tempest gives you a great wave clear and your maxed E Time Warp will help you to escape.



Late game

This is the moment your burst damage has decline, you have almost or full build and you have your ultimate in max level.

It's very important that you are aware of your burst damage has decline at this game phase so focus on play with your utility for your team.

Keep doing split push when you have Teleport or if you wish, go with your team to help them in teamfights.

This is a great moment to search a multiple stun, remember you can change teamfights stunning multiple enemies.

Focus on protect your squishy teammates and remember that the enemies usually try to kill Zilean before his allies, but you will have your Zhonyas or Crown to survive.

You will have your ultimate in max level, this is great because you will heal a lot and it'll have less cooldown.

Although Zilean is not a very popular champion, I like playing him a lot. I think he is a very useful champion and his playstyle is very special.

I recommend to practice a lot with him and I hope you give him a chance.

I want to invite you to visit my Twitch Channel where I usually play and talk about behavior: https://www.twitch.tv/cryniu

Please remember that my content is mostly in Spanish, but if you go there I'll be glad to answer you in English :D

See you!